Manley Show Still Goes On

January 25, 1989|By VITO STELLINO The Baltimore Sun

Leave it to Dexter Manley to come up with an unusual way to spend time at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic.

Manley, a defensive end for the Washington Redskins, is continuing his two daily morning radio sports commentaries this week on WWDC-FM in Washington from the Hazelden Foundation, a rehabilitation clinic in Center City, Minn.

Manley announced at the end of the season that he was going to check in at Hazelden during the off-season for after-care treatment.

Manley, who was suspended for 30 days by National Football League Comissioner Pete Rozelle during training camp in July for violating the league's substance abuse policy, spent about a month at Hazelden in the spring of 1987.

If he flunks another drug test, he is subject to a lifetime suspension, although he can apply for reinstatement after sitting out a season. Manley says that he is an alcoholic; he has not denied reports that he is also fighting a cocaine problem.

Goff Lebhar, the station manager of WWDC, said he allowed Manley to continue his radio reports from Hazelden because Manley's treatment is voluntary.

"There was no reason to keep him off the air. That thought never crossed my mind," Lebhar said. "The Redskins and the NFL aren't involved. This is strictly Dexter Manley. It was totally elective on his part."

A spokesman for the Redskins said the team would have no comment on Manley's stay at the clinic.

Mary Ellen Connolly, a spokeswoman at Hazelden, said clinic policy is to neither confirm nor deny whether a person is at Hazelden, but one staffer said it was "very highly unusual" for a patient to be making radio broadcasts from Hazelden.

Connolly said that a person in a primary treatment program wouldn't be on television or radio, but said Hazelden has a continuing education program and a vast array of services related to the treatment of chemical dependency.

Lebhar said that Manley, while on the air Tuesday, told the host of the morning show, who calls himself the "Greaseman," that he had checked in for a one-week stay.

He had originally planned to go to the clinic in March but moved it up because he has a family vacation planned in March.

When Manley announced at the end of the season that he was planning to return to Hazelden, he praised the facility as a place where a person can learn a lot about life.

It is uncertain when Manley will undergo his next NFL drug test because a league spokesman said earlier this week that the league hadn't decided whether to test players in the off-season.

Each player is subject to one mandatory test at the start of the season. If he passes it, he's not tested until the next season. If he flunks it, he is subject to periodic tests during the season.